Freedom of Choice?

Freedom of Choice?

From ThirdEyeParagonEarth.com

The evidence is out there, if only you wish to do
your research. You have the choice to learn and change and make a
difference.

What a lot of people tell me to justify their decisions regarding their
use of animal products, or animals themselves, as in the form of
entertainment, is that they don’t have a choice and just have to. Or that
they were raised to be a certain way, eat a certain way, etc. As far as
someone saying they were raised to be a certain way, for me all that amounts
to is that they were raised to not make their own decisions. But I can’t
understand this kind of mentality at all, especially coming from Americans,
who pride themselves on their freedom to choose.

Now, we can dispute all day
and all night if Americans really have these freedoms or if they’re just
illusions, but let’s just go with the idea that choice does exist, not only
in the U.S., but in most parts of the developed world. Why is it so hard
then, especially with all the alternatives available to people? Why do they
choose to continue on in their selfish, uneducated ways even after they’ve
been educated about abuses endured by animals in all kinds of situations,
from the farms on which they’re raised for food to the way they’re treated
in zoos and aquariums?

A friend of mine taking some time off in San Diego, CA told me she was
planning on going to the San Diego Zoo. After giving her a couple of tidbits
of information I found regarding their importation of wild animals and how
these animals, particularly elephants, will never live out their lives in
any way comparable to a life in the wild, she went ahead to the zoo anyway,
said she really enjoyed it, and apologized to me, telling me she just didn’t
have a choice, she had to go. The problem here is that she did have a
choice.

There are plenty of accredited sanctuaries and refuges where wild
animals, byproducts of circuses and other arenas of abuse, are kept so that
the public can be educated on their plight. TAOS (The Association of
Sanctuaries) provided a list of sanctuaries which followed their strict
guidelines for keeping animals, for example. Although TAOS is no longer, the
Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries can be the new go-to site for
information on accredited sanctuaries and the guidelines they are required
to adhere to. People can visit these non-profit facilities and see animals
up-close, understand why these animals are in captivity to begin with
(there’s usually a horrific history of abuse and a terrible life involved),
and get everything they would from a zoo.

In fact, CAPS (Captive Animal Protection Society) posted a press release in
July 2009 discussing their new film entitled No Place Like Home, which
exposes animal abuse in zoos. Although the zoos are based in the UK, the
abuses are mirrored in other nations as well, including America.

What people don’t understand is that zoos typically want younger animals
because they attract more visitors, and more money – this is a business of
exploitation and profit, after all. Once these animals are too old or
sickly, zoos don’t care for them to the very end like sanctuaries would.
Instead, they often sell these animals to animal dealers, who may then sell
them to places like roadside zoos, canned hunts, in which there is no
hunting whatsoever since the animals are confined with no escape and then
killed, or others who will exploit the animals further (accredited zoos
aren’t allowed to sell directly to hunting ranches, so the animals often end
up there through some 3rd-party middleman). Circuses do the same thing. Zoos
that aren’t accredited have that much more leeway to do as they please.

No matter which way you cut it, or what zoos will tell you about educating
our children about animals, these aren’t places you need to go to and
support with your money. Children learn nothing except that these majestic
animals are undeserving of a life of freedom and are placed in artificial
environments for their selfish viewing pleasure, to usually be taunted and
screamed at by these same children whose parents fail to teach them respect
for other living things while claiming they want to “educate” them on
animals. But I digress, and I move into totally different problems facing
society and movement toward enlightenment and change. So getting back on
track…

Yes, you do have a choice. No, you do not need to attend zoos or circuses to
see animals up close and personal. Unfortunately, there are too many animals
already in captivity as a result of illegal breeding and trading, and the
lucky few who are saved find their rest at some of the accredited and
recognized sanctuaries and refuges that genuinely care about the well-being
of these creatures and who work tirelessly to implement new laws for their
protection.

Those are the places you should support, those are the places
you should be giving your money to, those are the places where your children
will learn something that will open their hearts towards acceptance of other
living things as well as fellow humans. Those are the places that will spend
their money saving, transporting, medicating, and providing the best
environment they can until the day these animals die. Those are the places
that will often rescue wildlife, rehabilitate them, and release them back
into the wild whenever possible. Zoos and aquariums, which get their animals
from breeders or breed the ones they already have only to get rid of them
when they get old, and trap them from the wild as well, can’t say the same.
The evidence is out there, if only you wish to do your research. You have
the choice to learn and change and make a difference.

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